


Discoveries Over the First Year

by JediJewels25



Series: An Anomaly Affair [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Abby's a sweetie but also a badass, Amelia is fun to write, Claudia starts out kinda high strung but gets better, Connor's a dork, Crushes, Cutter is my favorite team leader, F/M, First feelings forming, Helen is a bitch, Home Office, I don't hate Lester, Prehistoric and Futuristic creatures, Res is adorbs, Some Fluff, Some angst, Stephen's hot, Strained Relationships, Time Travel, Violence, anomalies, dinsoaurs, everyone knows this, life or death scenarios, reposted fic for the better, swearing warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 09:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16807534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediJewels25/pseuds/JediJewels25
Summary: If Nick Cutter could say one thing about Amelia Rogers, it was that she was a clever girl. And when you were dealting with Anomalies, clever was definantly a factor you wanted on your team.Takes place over the course of the first season.





	1. Meetings in a Prehistoric Place

**Author's Note:**

> *yes, this is a repost of my fist work I posted. I figured to revisit after some time to edit a few things and clean the story up a bit. This fic is one that I enjoy so I wanted to come back to it. And since some of my other stories are doing will and have gotten far I'm taking a little break from them to give this one some attention. Thanks for understanding and I hope you enjoy this even better.

The first time Amelia got involved with team was not long after Cutter had formed it. He was working with the goverment, including James Lester and Claudia Brown from the Home Office. Researching and containing anomalies: which for lack of a better deffinition, rips in time that opened up randomly and caused chaos when creatures of the past walked into the present. What they did was locate the anomalies, contain any creatures that came through and try and put them back where they belong before the anomalies closed. If they didn’t not only could innocent people get killed but permanently change the past which would affect the present.

Cutter, first name Nick, was a scottish man in his mid thirties. He had blond hair and blue eyes. A professor of evolutionary zoology who taught at the Central Metropolitan University, stumbled upon an anomaly case and that’s how he joined the Home Office. Along with his former student/ lab technician, Stephen Hart. Hart was only a few years younger than Cutter. A trained marksman and animal tracker, Stephen was also close friends and experienced the same case. Also on the team was Abby Maitland, a short blond Zookeeper in her late twenties who worked at the Wellington Zoo specializing in reptiles. As well as Connor Temple, a geeky young man with dark hair and the only one who didn’t have blue eyes, instead he had brown. He was a palaeontology/evolutionary zoology student and that was how he met Cutter and Hart. What Connor brought to the team was he was facinated by prehistoric animals and was constantly updating a master list he started as a teen. Claudia Brown was a ginger offical that ran the anomaly operation who was in her late twenties. They also had Captain Ryan of special forces handeled the fire power and his job was to keep the team safe. James Lester was a tightly wound administrator that headed the Home Office and was the brigde between the team and the government. The government that was involved thought it best to keep anomalies from the public to avoid panic. So it was all on a need-to-know basis.

An anomaly opened up in a shut down retail store, so no one was expecting anyone to be there. Lester had the sight locked down and when it was confirmed nothing had come through, Cutter and Stephen decided to go through and see what was on the other side. The boys crossed through the gold shards right into the past. The other side was a dry grassland miles in every direction. The harsh sky was full of cries of long dead creatures. It was earth but it also felt like another world all together.

There was a giddiness that came with coming face to face with the long extinct life you could only have spectated on before. Prehistoric creatures, before the dinosaurs as past them. When humans only had crude records. Or none at all. Now they could actually see what the animals of the past looked like, behavior, how they sounded, all this information that would be normally impossible to obtain besides the little they got from fossils.

The giddiness for Cutter was however cut short when he spotted a human figure on the hill a hundred yards away. For a split second he thought it was Helen, his wife who disappeared eight years prior into the anomalies. “Hey!” He shouted as he made his way to the figure, Stephen close behind. It was indeed a woman, but she was not Helen. This was a younger girl, mocha brunette hair in a 40’s style bob to frame her inverted triangle face. She had a jean jacket over a black tank top paired with a blue skort, and worn in brown uggs. She had a note book and pen in her hand and a pair of binoculars handing on her neck. When they got closer they could see she had faded freckels and jade green eyes. She was surprised to see them however she did not run as they approached. Instead greeted with a warm smile.

“Who are you; what are you doing here?” Cutter demanded. A hot wind picked up which they could feel against their bare skin and made them warm through their clothes.

“It’s okay, I know what I’m going.” The woman reasured them, “I do this all the time.” There was a heard of some type of herbivours behind her which was the reason for the binoculars and notepad.

“Who are you?” Cutter asked again.

“Yeah, Amelia Rogers.” She stuck her hand out to shake.

“Amelia, you can’t be here,” Nick started but she shook her head, “No its alright, this happens quiet friquently I do this all the time; for my research. See, these doorways have been opening randomly different places to different time periods. I have been studying them for about two years.” She guestured with her notebook. Amelia let the older gentelman, whom she learned was Nick Cutter, barrow her binoculars as they talked prehistoric. The other man was Stephen Hart who didn’t say much but clearly was just as enthusiastic. Their time admiring the past was sort however, due to the anomaly weakening. As the trio came back Amelia was seized by the special forces.

~

Claudia tried to smooth things over, as she always did. However Amelia Rogers was proving to be difficult. She did not cooperate to any story Claudia tried to spin and Lester got impatient so he scooped her up to pick her brain. He also had a team sent to her flat to seize all her research to analize. He was certainly conviced the woman knew more than she let on, however when Cutter analized her research he saw she knew as much about the anomalies as they did. “Amelia Rogers is an ordinary girl,” Cutter defended, “she’s bright and two years ago she stumbled upon the anomalies just like we did and has been using them to understand prehistoric life without permanently staying like Helen. She just wants to understand, same as us.”

“You don’t know that for sure. Ms. Rogers may be in cahoots with Helen, or perhaps she has her own agenda.” Lester conjectured.

“You have been questioning her for hours, the girl has told you everything she knows, including that she doesn’t know anyone by the name of Helen Cutter!” Nick point out, “Instead of interigating her we should work with her.”

“You want to recruit her?” Lester couldn't believe what he was hearing, “You have made some ridiculous statements but this is by far-”

“Amelia is smart, she’s quick on her feet and frankly we could use someone like her on this team.” Cutter couldn’t believe this was one more thing he had to fight Lester on. They had been working together not even a month and already the two had knocked heads numberous times. 

Lester sighed, the headache that came with arguing with Cutter was fast-forming. “Alright fine, if you want to add her as another one of your groupies. However I want to keep a close watch, and all reseach she has now and in the future belongs to us.” 


	2. Initial Butterflies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amelia is indoctored into the team and goes on her first case. She has no proublem fitting in and already the group starts to become fond of her.

Amelia loved the idea of working with more people on the mysterious rips in time. It was something big that had to be shared with others, even if it was just a few. If she hadn’t been a loner by nature she would have told people when she first stumbled into one. At twenty-nine years of age, she had been on her own for the past twelve. She did took a few years in university with variation in studies. Then she took another few years taveling and learn more verity in skills before she moved back to London, bought a flat and worked the odd jobs. Just work to keep steady income so she didn’t need to fret about finances. Two years previous, Amelia came across her first anomaly. It happened in an Alley she’d cut through to the market on a Wednesday. Just burst right in front of her eyes. She took a peak through, and that was that.   
Amelia read everything she could get her hands on and the history of Earth and all her eras. She read up on hypothosis and theories made by professors over the course but it was never enough. The doorways fasinated her and there was so little she knew about them. There was only ever were evolutionary blips and mythical legends posed some indirect hint or explination rather. So she started looking for the signs. Hoping she could find another. And when she did she tried to learn as much as possible about it before going through. She quickly learned they were magnetic and when the magnetic pull weakened it meant the doorway was closing. It gave her all the indication she needed to venture through and see what the past was like on the other side.

Despite no degree, Amelia was extreamly educated. She had the intellect to fit right in with Nick and Stephen and talk about evolution. She talked geek with Connor and bonded with him over syfy, and instantly bonded with Abby on animals and yoga. Amelia seamlessly got along with with everyone on the team. She even tolderated Lester dispite his sour additude. She was more than happy to share her own research with the group and even got in long discussions with Cutter, theorizing about the anomalies.In fact Amelia came to the Central Metropolitan University Department of Evolutionary Zoology many late nights going over research with Nick Cutter.

Stephen came to Nick’s office one Saturday morning to find the new member cramed in an uncomfortable chair surrounded by Helen’s paper, fast asleep. He was impressed she had been able to fall asleep in such a position, but her body was probably not as happy. He smiled as he cleared some papers out of the way to reach her. “Amelia,” Stephen shook her gently. Amelia jerked awake, groaning at the bright light and the stiffness of her joints. “Take it you stayed late.” Stephen smirked.

“Yeahhhhhhhhhhh,” She exhaled as she stretched, her back cracking loudly. “What time is it?”

“Bout, ten past nine. Come on, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.” Stephen offered, which she tiredly agreed to. He handed Amelia her jacket and lead her to the on campus coffee lounge.

“God, campus coffee is so cheap. Its terrible.” Amelia made a face as she sipped her ‘mocha’.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t fall asleep here. “ Stephen pointed out.

“Touché.” Amelia pointed her chin down and arched her eye brow slightly, causing him to smile. The two sat at a bar table near the window while students bussed around them. “So where’s Cutter?” She asked.

“I think he had a meeting with Claudia and Lester this morning at the Home Office, debreifing on the anomalies.” Stephen said as he sipped his black coffee, she was right the coffee was terrible.

“So this is just what we do, eh?” Amelia set her coffee down to sit up, “Just wait around for the next anomaly sighting.”

“Pretty much yeah, we have no way of tracking them.”   
“Its rather dull.” Amelia pointed out. “So, you got a girlfriend?”

Stephen chuckled, “Why are you asking?”

“I’m just curious that’s all.” Amelia shrugged, “And its perefctly normal to get to know your new pals by asking them personal questions.”

Stephen shook his head, “yeah. Name’s Allison, she’s in the Amazon Rainforest researching tropical diseases.”

“Sexy.” Amelia said sarcastically. “Quiet the long distance, must put a straine on the relationship.”

He shrugged, hadn’t put much thought into it. “Not really, she won’t be there much longer. In fact she’ll come home in a month.”

“Congratulations.” She said and guestured with her coffee to cheers him. Stephen devuldged and tapped her cup with his. She chuckled and took another sip. Amelia liked Stephen, he was fun to have banter with.

“Lads!” Connor called from the door and hurried to join them, “What are you guys doing here?” He asked pulling up a chair. _Ah Connor the puppy, eager to be apart of the group._

“Just having coffee.” Amelia said with a shrug, looking at her watch, “I should go home, shower, change. Have decent coffee.” Amelia stood up as she said this, grabbing her stuff. “Thanks for the slugde, Stephen.” She smiled at him as she headed to the door.

Both boys watched her go, Connor sightly confused before turning back to the empty chair trying to figure out why Amelia departed when he arrived. “Did- where you two on a date?” Stephen rolled his eyes, Connor was an encyclopedia, however, sometimes he said stupid things. Instead of answering the dumbest question he ever heard, Stephen simply stood up and left. Leaving Connor to sit by himself wondering what just happened.

The next day they got a reported creature sighting out in Dover. The owner of a seasonal hotel made a report some type of animal was on the property. The team headed up to see if was a hoax or not. This incuded Ms. Brown. Amelia and Connor shared the same buzz of excitment as they got out of the truck. Cluadia and Cutter interviewed the owner while the rest of them took a look around. There wasn’t much evidence but when Amelia pulled out her compass she always carried it was going nuts. “Well, there’s an anomaly somehwere around here.” She announced.

Stephen nodded, “alright, lets pair off to cover more ground, call when somebody finds something.” Amelia started for the hotel with Stephen, and Abby and Connor continued to look around outside. The building was fairly modern, since it was off-season there wasn’t anybody around. The owner had some staff come in once a week to keep the hotel condition up. So there was maybe three to six people here the rest of the time. They spoted a door was proped open, stupidly, but it was to let air through the building to keep it cool without wasting money on air conditioning. Or someone had taken a smoke and didn’t shut after themselves.   
“A small enough creature could have walked in without leaving any sign of entry.” Amelia pointed out, “morons.”

Stephen nodded in agreement; it was a stupid move. The two walked in and followed down the hallway of the first floor. There were some rooms for guest, the entry space with the front desk, and storage. They checked out the front space, empty. Cutter and Cluadia must have gone outside with the owner. Amelia wandered around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The two wandered into the back where the cleaning supplies and laurndry room. Stephen’s phone buzzed and he stopped, “It’s Nick, probably found the anomaly. Yeah,” Stephen turned to talk to Cutter.

Amelia waited, nothing was out of place so she assumed that if there was a creature it had gone back through. She glanced down the hall from where she stood waiting for Stephen to finish talking to Cutter; thought she heard something. However it wasn’t enough to investigate. In fact she probably imagined a noise since it was so quiet. She turned back to Stephen as he rejoined her. “So what did-”Amelia began but was cut off when Stephen pushed her back against the wall and pressed his hand agaist her mouth, only warning was a quiet “sh!” Stephen’s whole body was pressed agaisted hers in a protective manner, as his intense blue eyes watched the end of the hallway. He had seen the slightest movement behind her. Amelia tried to look but she couldn’t see much past Stephen’s face with her head unable to move.  
  
This was the closest she had been to Stephen and took the moments of quieting her breathing to really get a look at him. He was an attractive man, the chocolate hair paired with the blue eyes and stroung jaw were quite pleasent to look at. He also smelled nice; she only now noticed. A clean, aftershave smell that added to calming the jump in her heart race. Stephen was rather strong and warm, which she found rather comforting as the unmistakable sound of something coming towards them was heard. Amelia swallowed as the heavy breathing of something large, like panting, came closer. She wanted to see but she dare not move for fear of making noise. Stephen pressed into her more in an attept to go unnoticed. If it went down the hallway they were in he would lure it away from Amelia. The long snout of a Gorgonopsid came into view and Stephen tensed, it was smaller than the one he first encountered but he assumed it was just as dangerous. The beast contiued on it’s way straight rather than have a closer look where the two were.

Stephen waited until the Gorgonopsid was far enough before he turned to look at Amelia, uncovering her mouth.

“You alright?” He asked in a low voice, catious of drawing attention.

Amelia nodded, “What is it?” She whispered.

“Gorgonopsid,” Stephen looked back, pulling away to make sure it was gone, “come on, we need to get out of here and tell Cutter. It’s too dangerous for just the two of us.” He pulled his pistol out with his right and took her hand with his left, leading in the opposite direction of the Gorgonopsid.

~

“So we got another gorgonopsid.” Connor nodded, trying not to sound scared. The rest of the group was concerned.

“Its smaller than the one from the Forest of Dean, most likely hasn’t fully mutured yet.” Stephen told Cutter and Abby. Amelia was studying the anomaly, it never ceased to amaze her. Cutter had found it and that was why he called Stephen. She knew they were coming up with a plan to lure the adolecent gorgonopsid back to its time period. But she couldn’t pull herself away just yet.

Abby came up next to her friend, crossing her arms. “So,” Abby began, “Are you and Stephen seeing each other?” She tried her best not to sound too noisy or upset. Frankly the blond had a little crush on Stephen and wasn’t sure if he was seeing someone.

“What?” Amelia looked at her, “No, why would you think that?” Amelia smiled at the ridculousness.

“Well when you two joined us you were holding hands...” Abby pointed out.

“That?” Amelia shook her head, “We were in the hallway when we saw the gorgonopsid and Stephen got a little protective, you know how he gets.” She shrugged it off.

“So there’s nothing going on between you two?” Abby asked, secretly hopeful.

“No, Abby. If there was I would have told you.” Amelia rassured, “Why?”

Abby shook her head, “No reason.”

“Okay,” Amelia said and walked over to the others who were trying to figure out how to lure the beast out. Amelia looked at them and looked back at the hotel, it was pretty straight forward from both points. “I’ll be bait.” She offered. The shocked looks she got were almost comical.

“Absolutly not.” Cluadia put her foot down. “I will not allow you to endanger your life.” Cutter and Stephen seemed to agree.

“Why not, its an adolecent and its a straight forward path through the hotel to the anomaly and its more likely to chase me because I’m smaller and therefore appear to be an easier target. And I run frequently so I should be able to out run it. Besides its the quickest way to get it back where it belongs, and it will be with the least ammont of damage.” Amelia argued.

Cutter signed, she was certainly persuasive. “Alright fine. We set up to tranquilize it if things go wrong. You lead it straight to the anomaly and jump out of the way. Don’t go through the anomaly.” He ordered sternly, ignoring the look Claudia was giving him.

“Course.” Amelia nodded, going to get ready. She emptyed her pockets and made sure her shoes were tightened. She could hear Claudia protesting behind her so it was best she get a move on before anyone could stop her. “Wish me luck!” She told Connor as she jogged back to the hotel.

“Amelia! Amelia get back here!” The redhead shouted.

“Stephen, get ready.” Cutter grabbed a gun, doubting why he let her do it.

Amelia slowed as she got into the hotel. Her leggings made her a littel warm but she would need them when she cooled down from her run. She retraced her steeps. She was actually giddy to see a gorgonopisd in real life. She soon heard the framilir grunting and smiled. The young gorgonopsid was atempting to get into the pantry of the kitchen. Amelia whistled, getting it’s attention. “Hey, com’mon!” She clapped to intice it even more, “That’s it, chase me!” It worked and the gorgonopsid began to pursure her. Amelia couldn’t help but laugh as she ran full sprint away from the kitchen to the hallway behind the front desk, and to the side door. It was due to the burst of adrenalin, but she also enjoyed it a little. As she headed for the exit she glanced back to make sure it was still following her.

Amelia raced into the opening, the gorgonopsid bursting after her and roaring in protest. Her lungs were starting to burn a little and her legs tingled; she didn’t dare to stop. Amelia zoned on the anomaly.

Stephen had a rifle and was by the door and had it trained on the gorgonopsid. Cutter was closer to the anomaly with his own. Despite taking the procausion Amelia was still at risk. Everyone else were backed away at a safe distance, watching the brunette head towards the glowing light.

Amelia forced herself to a hard stop less than a foot away from the opening and turned to look at the gorgonospid. She had actually kept a decent distance between it and herself and now was going to make sure it charged through the anomaly. It was about 500 ft and closing.

“What the Hell is she doing?!” Claudia exclaimed.

400.

“Amelia, get out of the way!” Connor shouted.

300.

“Shit.” Stpehen muttered as he lowered the weapon and sprinted to get a closer shot.

200.

“Amelia! Amelia MOVE!” Abby joined in, waving her arms.

150.

“Rogers, Get out of there!” Cutter ordered, prepared to fire.

100.

They were all shouting now, but she stayed where she was; staring down the beast. _Wait. Just a little closer._

Amelia waited until she saw the white of its teeth. When she did, she threw herself to the right and diverolled out of the way. The gorgonpsid couldn’t make such a sharp turn, or even expected it as it lunged through the anomaly. Amelia grinned as she pushed herself up from the dirt to her feet. When she stood up the anomaly began to flicker and then closed all together. She jumped breathlessly, cheering.

The rest of the team gathered, Connor and Abby were in euphoria with her. Claudia was not as happy, more relieved that there wasn’t a causality. Cutter had a stern look, “Amelia, that was extreamly dangerous.”

“What, I’m fine! The gorgonopsid is back where it belongs, the anomaly is closed, no one was hurt or killed, I’d say it was a pretty successful day.” Amelia caught her breath.

“Yes,” Cutter softened, “but you shouldn’t have pushed it.”

Amelia grinned and patted him on the back. Claudia went to got make sure the owner wouldn’t go talking to any newspapers (and to keep his doors closed) and the rest packed up the truck. Abby had already jumped in her mini cooper and headed home to Rex, the Coelurosauravus which no one knew she had. When they first band together in the Forest of Dean, he had snuck back through before the anomaly closed and Abby scooped him up before Lester’s men noticed. Connor was putting away the equipment he had gotten out and Amelia was packing up the rifles when she felt someone standing by her. She looked up to Stephen. “Hey.” She smiled, “I’m almost finished.”

Stephen nodded, a little serious, “You know you really scared us back there.”

“Oh.” She stood up straight, “I’m sorry. If I had moved too early it might have not gone through.”

“Just be careful next time, yeah?” He nodded, shutting the back door.

Amelia nodded, moving to get in. “Yeah, I will.”


	3. The Rules of Taking Risks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen get's injured on a job which sparks a detail that everyone refuses to acknowledge except Amelia. 
> 
> (Set durning episodes 2 & 3)

When the anomaly opened in the subway, Amelia was out of town visiting her mom. Cutter had reasured her she could go and they could handle everything for a week while she was gone. And for most of the week everthing was calm. Abby agreed to call her if anything happen. Connor had texted her initally when he camped over night with Abby, then when his friends pulled a prank and how he was off the team. Amelia responded saying she’d talk with Cutter and help smooth things over. Sure, Connor had broken the rules but there was no harm done and his friends didn’t believe him at all. It was a understadable mistake so she promised she’d get him back on the team.

On her way back Abby tried to call her to let her know they were looking into an anomaly. Amelia was on a plane and had her phone off. When she got in her car and turned it back on she had 9 missed calls, five from Abby, two from Cutter, and two from Connor. She called Abby back first who filled her in while she drove to the subway. They were dealing with Mammoth Spiders in an old bunker as well as an Arthropleura. They had been seperated from Cutter and Stephen haven’t heard from him. Connor was back, Ryan had him pulling up infomation on the giant centipede.

“Alright I’m on my way, I’ll be there in fifteen- twenty minutes at most.” Amelia said as she weaved through the airport terminal in a rush.

“Don’t speed through traffic.” Abby told her before hanging up.

By the time she pulled up to the blocked off entrance, Cutter was coming out, carring Stephen. Amelia had gotten out of her taxi and started walking towards the established base camp where Connor had his computer out. Cutter’s voice was heard. “Medic!” Everyone swarmed. Ryan jumped to help shoulder Stephen’s almost dead weight. Thank god Claudia had the foresight to have an ambulance standing by. The parimedtics helped take over which allowed Cutter to pull away and fill Claudia, Abby, and Connor in on what happed.

Amelia ran up to the stretcher, “Bloody Hell! What happened??”

“Mmmass- massive c-centipide,” Stephen groaned out as they set him down, “I went to find Cutter when -ugh, he didn’t come back up. Bugger bit me!”

“Can’t leave you lot alone can I? Leave for one week, and Connor gets fired and you go and get piosoned!”

Stephen was shaking uncontrolably but he tried to smile, “oh it’s not that bad.”

“You’re in shock, the venom is attacking you’re body. It IS that bad!” Amelia pushed her hair out of her face, keeping pace with the gurney. “Had to go and be a bloody hero.” Stephen attemped a chuckle but it came out in pained grunts. She took his hand into her to try and offer comfort. The paramedics stopped at the ambulance and Amelia leaned down, “You better stay alive, Stephen Hart. Otherwise I’m gonna kill you.”

Stephen smiled breifly, “You can’t kill a dead man.”

“Don’t test me.” Amelia looked him in the eye, making sure he knew she was worried about him. She gave his hand a squeeze before she walked over to Cutter, wanting to know what they were going to do next. Abby stepped up to talk to Stephen, and ended up going with him to the hospital.

Appearently, there was an exterminator who was posioned earlier and taken to hospital. In the time it took to get Lester’s clearence, scramble the special forces, evacuate the area of civials, and get an initial scan through, the exterminator had died. They found an old bunker put in during wars where the infestaion of Mammoth Spiders were coming from. While they were large they were proven to be harmless; not venomness at all. So Cutter convinced Claudia to let them take a look seeing as they were closer to professionals. The three of them, (Cutter, Stephen, and Abby) had gone down with strong torches and found the anomaly hiding among expired rations. This anomal was clearly open to an earlier era than her Permian. When there was a higher level of methane in the atmosphere that was in correlation with the supersized arthopods.

That was when the giant centipide made it’s grand entrance. Arthopleura was thought to be a mellow dweller of the forrest floor similar to its descendants. The trio found that it wasn’t the case at all. The Arthopleura was highly aggressive and was not as scarred off by the light as the spiders. It made several attempts to stike which seperated Cutter from Stephen and Abby, the latter were closest to the exit. Cutter distracted the centipide and ordered Stephen to get Abby (and subsequectly himself) to safety. Not that Abby was a damsel, but Cutter knew the younger male was more addapt in a violent animal situation. Alone with the creature, Cutter managed to find an empty tunnle behind the the anomaly wheer he escapped to. There was no alternate exits he found, but it was a safe place to wait. Unfortunately it was also a black zone for radio signal so no one else could reach him.

When they had lost contact with Cutter, clauudia took charge. She told Abby to call Connor becuase his list probably knew what they were dealthing with, and Ryan to call from an ambulance. She ordered that until they knew what they were dealing with, no one else was to go into the tunnels. Cutter would have to be on his own until they were better equipped. Stephen, no surprise, didn’t follow orders. He went back down to look for Cutter. Evidently, the marksman tangled with the centipide and took a hit. Cutter came back through the etrace he came in and found Stephen on the ground. No sign of the centipide.

“You see what happens when you charge in without all the information?” Claudia was frazzled and was taking it out on Cutter, “Now we have a man in hospital and no idea how long we have before he’s dead!”

“Alright, calm down!” Amelia interjected, “Abby went with Stephen to the hospital. I’m sure she’ll get a time frame from the doctor and we’ll go from there. Right, so just take a breath.”

When Abby came back she told them what the doctor told her. “We need a pure sample of the vemon to match with an antidote.” Abby concluded.

“What do you want to do, ask it to fill a specimen jar?” Claudia asked, intending to be sarcastic but Cutter smiled a little, “in a way.”

Connor shook his head, following Nick’s train of thought. “No way-”

“It’s the only option.” Cutter turned to him.

Amelia frowned, not sure what Cutter was getting at. “What are you going to do?” Claudia asked as Nick formed his plan.

He looked at her and said, “I’m going to invite a very angry centipede to bite me.”

~

_This was insane._ Cutter wrapped a bag under his jacket sleeve and went down yet again with Ryan and his men. His plan was to get the centipide to strike his arm, which will instead be collected into the bag. They had to move fast. Antivenom took time to produce and Stephen was already in dangerous condition. The inital sweep proved empty. They were afraid it had go back through the anomaly. Yet Connor came through with knowleged that Arthopleura liked to burrow. They found a tunnle in the soft earth and the boys plus Ryan crawled after it. Amelia waited with the rest of the special forces waiting for the boys to get back. The longer the weight continued the ore restless they became. Amelia was nawing on her bottom lip and lupping at the ends of her hair as her gazed at the gold shards. _What if the centipide had gone back through? What if Cutter or Connor get hurt facing off with it? What if they don’t make it in time and-_

The thoughts were relentless as Amelia shook her head to clear them away. The radio beeped and Claudia answered, “What’s your status Ryan?” She asked.

“We got the sample, the centipede is dead.” Ryan’s voice came through and they all let out a relieved breath. Amelia exhaled forcefully and embraced Abby. Cutter came through which meant Stephen was going to live. She was so happy, maybe she wouldn’t kill him after all.

After she finished securing the sight and filled out her report she stopped by the hospital to see how Stephen was doing. Amelia navigated through the busy wings, ran into Claudia Brown who pointed her in the right direction. Abby had also stopped by, she had been since the doctor’s matched an antivenom and was the first one to greet him when he woke up. She wanted to be close to him after he asked her out in the ambulnce. But when she realized he didn’t remember asking her out, she made some excuse to get something from the vending mechine. So Amelia had just missed Abby when she came in.

Stephen was sitting up and reading in his bed. He still was a bit pale but definantly a huge imrpovent from before. He looked up when he heard someone walking in, “Hey, how was your trip?” He asked.

“Fine. How are you?” Amelia asked, pulling up a chair and grabbing a spare pillow.

Stephen snorted, so many people had asked him that question since he woke up. “Yeah, I’m foggy but I’m alright.”

“Good,” she leaned over and smacked him with the pillow, “Then I can do this.”

“Hey! What was that for?” Stephen grabbed the pillow and sat up a little more, setting his book down.

“Hypocrite.” Amelia pointed, baffling him, “You can’t tell me to be careful and not endanger my life with a creature, and then not follow your own rules! If you’re gonna risk your life then I should get to too.”

Stephen chuckled as she sat back in her chair and gave him a smug look, “Alright, I deserve that. I’m sorry if I scared you. From now on we can endanger ourselves together. Fair?”

Amelia giggled, they were such ridiculous friends, “Yeah, fair. What’cha reading?”

*Several days later*

The day same Stephen was released from the hospital there was a creature sighting at the Crystal Palace Diving Institute. Amelia was at the market when Stephen called her, so she had to rush home to throw her groceries in the fridge so they wouldn’t sour. When she arrived at the pool, Stephen had changed into trunks and flippers to search the pool but it looked liked the anomaly opened and closed rather quickly. Abby and Connor were stuck collecting water samples, Cutter and Claudia bickered. There was a tramatized girl on the sidelines who had seen her boyfriend get eatten by a giant monster. And that was why Claudia and Cutter were butting heads on how to go about handle the young lady. But that wasn’t the only odd tension in the air Amelia picked up on.

As she walked around the egde, Stephen surfaced and gripped the side. “Hey,” Amelia greeted as she knelt down to speak with him on a closer level, “Doctor cleared you for swin time then?”

He smirked at her teasing, “Care to join me then?”

“Don’t you dare!” Amelia pulled back. It wasn’t probable he would yank her into the water like a teeager in front of there profesional colleagues, but she didn’t put is past him.

“I don’t know what you’re insinuating.” He feigned innocent.

“Uh-huh.” She made her doubt clear in her tone, “Seriously, all clear to be back to looking for dinosaurs?”

He nodded, “Yup. Barely even tell where I was bit.” He rose up a little so she could see the fading bruse on his shouler.

“What about your memory? Still a fog?”

“Mostly. Super vemon and pain meds are not a happy combo.” The doctor said his memory might come back in pieces. And even if it didn’t he was told not to stress about it. Stephen recalled some snippets out of the blur. Even now, as he studdied her face, he felt like she had been there when it happen. “Were you there?”

“Yeah. I came right as Cutter pulled you out.” Amelia smirked lightly.

“Did we talk?”

“I told you if you died on me, I would kill you.”

“Sounds about right, you’re so loving in nature.” He reponded sarcastically.

Amelia snorted as she stood up. “all right pool boy, get back to swimming. I’m gonna see what Cutter needs me to do.” He smiled as she walked away before he went back under. Before she made it to their leader, Connor came up to Amelia, clearly something on his mind.

“Did you know Stephen had a girlfriend?” Connor bluntly asked.

“Yeah,” Amelia gave him a confused look, “You didn’t?”

“No.” Connor said, “I thought he was single and I wasn’t the only one.” He trailed off, thinking of Abby. Sure, it stung the girl he fancies fancied another. But he was too shy of a dork to admit anything to her. And frankly he didn’t like see Abby so unhappy so he put he feelings aside.

“Why didn’t you ask him? I asked him that when we first met. How much do you even know about your coworkers?” Amelia thought he was such a dork.

Connor didn’t have a good answer, it was a pratical thing to find out basic personal information about the people you worked with. Amelia grinned when he didn’t respond to her question, pat him on the shoulder, and continued on. He walked over to Abby to get back to helping her. She had wiped off of the makeup she had put on eariler in a foolish atempt to attract Stephen.

Later that day the remains of the lifeguard were found at a reservoir. Cutter and Stephen took with the special forces into diving and investigating the lake while the rest stayed behind to take more samples.

“Looks better in a wet suit.” Abby muttered as the boats left.

“So, uh, Amelia,” Connor cleared his throat and changing subject, “How was your visit with your mum.” He hadn’t asked her since she had been back.

“Uneventful.” Amelia said bluntly, passiving indicating she didn’t want to dicuss it. “What’s going on with you and Stephen?” She asked Abby, figuring where most of the weird energy amongst the team was coming from.

“Nuthing.” Abby lied, getting her hair out of her eyes.

Amelia sighed, “Don’t lie, it’s not a good look for you. You’ve been giving him the cold shoulder all day, and Stephen’s a guy so he hasn’t noticed yet. What happened while I was gone?”

Abby sighed, “When Stephen got bit, he said some things and asked me out. But he doesn’t remember and this morning he was picked up by his girlfriend, whom he forgot to mention.”

“And you have a crush on him. I get it.” Amelia put two and two together. Abby’s crush was easy to make and it was understandable. She did not peg Stephen’s though.

“Wait you knew?” Connor said, trailing behind as the three walked the shore.

“Course, it was pretty easy after the gorgonopisd last month when Abby asked if we were datin’ just cause we were holding hands breifly. Just like how Claudia fancies Cutter. So why haven’t you just told Stephen why you’re pissed at ‘em?” Amelia asked setting the case down and passing them a few little test tubes each.

“I can’t be mad at him since he doesn’t remember doing it.” Abby sighed, wading into the chilly water.

“Well you are mad at him. You’re just doing that passive aggressive crap waiting to see if he figures it out. Frankly you should be upfront about it.” Amelia gave her two cents on the matter and moved on. This team was full of crushes and dorks. And yes, she had picked up on Connor’s crush on Abby, extreamly obivous. Could have been just like a regular workplace if it weren’t for the constant case of perilous danger the were all in.

After the Mosasaur tried to eat Abby and Connor, and losing the diver in the anomaly with it, the team regrouped. The anomaly had closed behind the diver which was the president sictuation. Cutter and Stephen went to the home office to talk with Lester about the missing diver. The rest of the group went home to wait for word. But there was a chance the anomaly wouldn’t open again, and that they had lost a man forever. Cutter was being optimistic. He had a theory that the anomaly was the same from both incidents and simply had moved along a fault line. Lester was difficult to convice. And frankly everyone else at the Home Office though the diver was a lost cause. But Cutter was right. The anomaly reopened; this time in a basement in a resident house. A plumer had been called for a flooded basement, instead got attacked, and the missing diver reappeared. Sadly, he appeared to have drowned.

Cutter suspected Helen was on the other side. He had been seeing glimpses of her since they started on the anomaly project. Then Stephen’s memories came back to him and he confermed he had seen her in the bunker. To top it off, there was a cloth pinned to the diver when they pulled his body out, that Cutter recognized to belong to his astrainge wife. So he convinced Claudia to let him go through. What he didn’t know was that she had orders to bring Helen Cutter back no matter what.

Since Stephen had regained his memories he went to talk to Abby while they unloaded, preparing for Cutter’s departure. He had to apologize to her. Connor saw them talking and not wanting to be awkwardly invading a private conversation, chose to instead converse with Amelia.

“So how’s your mum?” He decided to put some effort into knowing his pals like she suggested.

“Fine.” She answered simply.

“And your dad, what about him?”

“He’s in Zimbabwe, they divorced while I was in school.”

“Oh,” Connor said, “I’m sorry.”

Amelia shrugged, “They were unhappy in their marriage. My Dad’s a scientist and wanted to study and protect endangared animals, mum was a hardwired lawyer. They fought constantly as they wanted different things. It was a relief when they agrred to spilt. Now he’s doing what he wants and she’s retired.”

“Must have been rough, you parents spliting up.” Connor sympathized. Amelia again shrugged not looking at him. “Do you visit often?” He asked.

“Not really. We had a falling out that started when I graduated.” Amelia explained, “She didn’t like the fact I didn’t want to go to university just because she wanted me to. Frankly I’m more of my father’s daughter and she doesn’t understand that. We hit breaking point when I left university, haven’t talked since before I discovered the anomalies.”

“Wow.” Connor wasn’t sure what to say, he couldn’t imagine not talking to his family for so long. “What changed.”

Amelia sighed, all she wanted to do was work and not deal with this. She looked Connor in the eye “Cancer. She won’t say what stage but it’s serious enough for her to decided to do treatment.”

Connor was shocked, “God, Amelia, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.” She said as she got up to throw herself into a meaningless task while they waited. 


End file.
